Les Olympiades

An about-turn for France’s premiere filmmaker, Jacques Audiard, in both style and substance—the film is largely shot in black and white and the subject concerns the romantic travails of Parisian millennials—'Paris, 13th District’ (the English title) beautifully transposes three Brooklyn-based tales from American graphic novelist Adrian Tomine to the gritty, decidedly non-touristic 13th arrondissement of the capital, with an exactitude of feeling that is a joy to behold. Four characters—well-educated French-Taiwanese underachiever Emilie (Lucie Zhang, the revelation here), young, Black graduate student Camille (Makita Samba), law student Nora (Noémie Merlant, from co-writer Céline Sciamma’s ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’), and kinky cam girl Amber (Jehnny Beth)—deal with being single in 2021 in decidedly different ways. The results are deeply satisfying cinema.

‘Stories of young love in Paris have long been two a sou in French cinema. But the genre is always up for reinvention, and Jacques Audiard rises to the occasion triumphantly in Cannes competition title “Paris, 13th District”—exuberantly reinventing his own cinema in the process… The narrative translates beautifully to a Parisian context, and four terrific leads—a mix of newcomers and familiar faces, the best known being Noémie Merlant [from “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”]—will give this fresh and, dare one say, “relatable,” film broad international appeal.’—Jonathan Romney, Screen